Thread loop controlled winding device

ABSTRACT

Filament or thread-winding apparatus embodying superposed decks of winding units or heads with individual speed controls, and individual filament feed thereto from overhead via thread loops across dancer arms respectively functioning as speed control sensors for said winding units.

United States Patent Heinz Schippers; Erich Lenk, Remscheid-Lennep; Wolfgang Weber, Wuppertal, Germany Inventors Appl. No. 803,197 Filed Feb. 28, 1969 Patented Feb. 23, 1971 Assignee Barmag Barmer Maschinenfabrik Aktiengesellschaft Wuppertal, Germany Priority Mar. 2, 1968 Germany 1374,863

THREAD LOOP CONTROLLED WINDING DEVICE 4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 242/18, 242/45, 242/35.5 Int. Cl. B65h 54/00 Primary Examiner Stanley N. Gilreath Attorney-Johnston, Root, OKeeffe, Keil, Thompson &

Schurtleff ABSTRACT: Filament or thread-winding apparatus embodying superposed decks of winding units or heads with individual speed controls, and individual filament feed thereto from overhead via thread loops across dancer arms respectively functioning as speed control sensors for said winding units.

THREAD LOOP CONTROLLED WINDING DEVICE The subject invention relates to devices for the winding of freshly spun or freshly cast and/or stretched, endless threadlike structures or filaments with speed-controlled winding heads. The latter are arranged in several decks one below the other. The filament or thread feed thereto takes place from above. Dancer arms are provided as measuring feelers for the speed control of the winding motors. They move in response to changes in tension of filaments running thereover above the winding head decks.

Winding devices with thread feed situated above, in which the winding heads are arranged one above the other in two decks, are known, e.g., as shown in German Pat. Specification No. 1,136,052. However, the winding heads belonging to one spinning place therein are laterally displaced. In these known winding devices, each winding head forms a building-blockform assembly. The winding carrier of the building-blockform unit is swingably or slidably borne in the casing, and it and its winding are urged against an idling, supporting roller with a stationary axis parallel to the winding axis. This provides a constant position of the thread entry place. The drive of the winding carrier is accomplished through a speed-regulated motor. The threads are conducted over a prestressed sensing pin as measuring feeler before reaching the thread guide. The sensing pin feels out the thread at an angle without loop formation and, through its movement on change of the thread tension, acts in a known manner (e.g., German Pat. No. 1,145,709) on a setting member, which in turn actuates the regulating device of the motor. The measuring feelers are arranged in these known devices in the deck in which the appertaining winding head is located.'

Dancer arms, by defining a thread loop in thread or filaments running thereover, serve as measuring feelers for the regulation of winding motors, especially dancer arms which through their own weight load a thread loop independently of their particular position. As is well known, such dancer arms have the advantage that the thread tension always remains constant, even during the regulating process, since the thread loop acts about the dancer arm as a thread storer. In the case of a briefly modified winding speed, only the size of the thread loop changes. The thread tension is predetermined there by the weight of the dancer arm. If the dancer arm loads the thread loop under the action of a spring, then the spring characteristic curve can be attuned to the particular winding process in each case whereby the changes of the thread tensions during the regulating process can be kept within negligibly narrow limits. It is further a known practice from German Pat. No. 1,116,340, in the case of single-row winding machines, to arrange the dancer arms as measuring feelers for the regulation of the rotation speeds of the winding motors situated above the structure deck in which the winding heads are installed.

The disadvantage of the dancer arms as compared to the sensing pins lies in a considerably greater space requirement, which is caused in the first place by the working play of the dancer arm and, in the second place, by the thread loop. In the case of an arrangement of the winding heads in several decks this drawback makes itself especially starkly evident.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In order to make the advantages of the dancer arm thread loop arrangement usable in the case of speed-regulated winding heads arranged in several decks one below the other, without having to take also their disadvantages, it is proposed, therefore, according to the subject invention, that the dancer arms be arranged in such a way among one another that the lower dancer arm roller or pin lies inside the angular thread course which is formed by the looping of the thread over the dancer arm roller or pin situated above the lower dancer arm. The dancer arm rollers or pins preferably move in the same plane. In special cases, however, it is also possible to have the two dancer arms move in different operating planes. Through this arrangement there is the advantage of a saving in space.

Also, where the dancer arms operate in one plane, there is an easily perspicuous thread guidance, which simultaneously provides for an easy placement of the threads. Any crossing of the threads is avoided in this arrangement of the dancer arms in every regulating position of the dancer arms and in every position of the traverse element. Still further, in the winding of a number of threads on separate windings, which are situated on a common winding axle or on a common winding tube, each of the dancer arms may have a number of rollers or pins corresponding to the number of windings. In such case, the rollers or pins are borne on a common roller axle or on several aligned roller axles. For the arrangement of aligned roller axles a fork-shaped dancer arm construction is especially well suited. The rollers of a dancer arm operate, accordingly, in parallel planes.

FIG. 1 shows the thread paths in two winding heads turning in the same direction with two decks vertically one above the other with the appertaining two dancer arms situated above the two decks and directly above the two winding heads.

FIG. 2 shows the thread paths in two winding heads turning in the same direction in two decks vertically one above the other, in which system the winding heads are laterally displaced with respect to the unit in which their respective dancer arms are arranged.

FIG. 3 shows the thread path in winding heads in two decks, with the winding heads in mirror image pairs and staggered in respective decks to each other and to the overhead units in which the dancer arms are arranged.

FIG. 4 shows a dancer arm with a common roller axle for two rollers, and

FIG. 5 shows a fork-shaped dancer arm with two aligned roller axles for the thread conduction to two windings situated on a common winding axle or tube.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the drawing there are schematically represented several preferred embodiments of the invention.

Freshly spun or freshly twisted filaments or threads 11 are first conducted over a driven godet 12. They then run over one each of the two dancer arm rollers or pins 13 and 14 with a bending of less than and are finally wound by the winding units or heads 15 and 16. The dancer arms 17 and 18 with the thread deflection rollers or pins 13 and 14 are arranged above the winding decks and relative to the corresponding winding heads 15 and 16 in such a way that the lower dancer arm roller(s) 14 and its thread loop 19 lie within the course of the thread loop 20 which is formed by the thread path over the dancer arm roller(s) 13 situated above. The dancer arms and their respective rollers move preferably in the same plane.

Part, e.g., one-half, of the threads or filaments 11 is conducted downwardly past the upper winding head deck to the lower winding heads 16. The winding tube or carrier 21 is mounted in winding heads 15 and 16in a known manner, such as on a swinging arm or movably on a rod so that the axle or axis of the winding 22 moves out parallel as the diameter of the winding grows. Each winding carrier 21 and its winding 22 is biased against a roller 23, which hasa fixed axis of rotation parallel to the winding axle. The thread guide 24 reciprocates in a known manner, such as may be provided by a cam drum, back and forth ahead of the winding 22. Each winding carrier or tube 21 is driven by its own speed-controllable motor (not shown in drawing), which is coupled to a regulating device. The latter is actuated by the movements of the dancer arm 17 or 18 as the thread loop fluctuates in its length.

In the arrangement according to FIG. 1, the winding heads are situated perpendicularly under the overhead unit with the godet 12 and the dancer arms 13 and 14. In order to protect the threads running over the lower winding heads from any contact with the upper winding head row and also in order to obtain equal traverse triangles, in this arrangement there is provided a deflection roller or pin 25. If, as shown in FIG. 2, the respective winding heads 15 and 16 are laterally displaced underneath the units with the godet l2 and the dancer arms 17 and 18, the deflection roller 25 can be dispensed with.

The arrangement of the winding heads 15 and 16 in opposite, right or left facing in two decks one above the other with the appertaining dancer arms 17 and 18 and godets 12 as illustrated in FIG. 3 yields another arrangement with the best overall compactness. A deflection roller or pin 25 is likewise unnecessary in this arrangement. This arrangement in upper deck units of heads 15 facing horizontally opposite to the lower deck units or heads 16 and a staggering of the lower and upper units or heads provides a clearance between windings 22 and idler rollers 23 sufficient to permit the threads or filaments from the lower thread loops 19 to run without interference or contact to the lower deck windings 22.

If several threads or filaments are wound on a common winding axle or tube as separate, side-by-side windings, these threads should be conducted over the same dancer arm, but in each case over a dancer arm roller or pin of its own. Embodiments of such dancer arms are illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG. 4 illustrates an axle 26 connected at its middle with the dancer arm 27 of dancer arm unit 17 with rollers 28 and 29 on both sides of the dancer arm. FIG. shows a fork-shaped or branched dancer arm 30 in which the axles of rollers 31 and 32 are aligned with one another. The dancer arm unit 17" has its arm 30 segmented into two branches 33 and 34, which rotatably carry at their ends the aforesaid axially aligned rollers 31 and 32.

A dancer arm with three rollers can be formed, for example, by a combination of the arm structures of FIGS. 4 and 5, in an arrangement wherein either the left-hand roller 28 and its axle is extended left from the branch 34 or the fork branch 34 and its roller 31 is connected to the dancer arm 21 with three rollers in axial alignment. All the rollers are supported on stub axles with access spaces therebetween whereby each roller can be fitted out with its thread or filament without having to cross the other threads or filaments.

The winding units or heads and 16 are illustrated schematically. The mechanical structures per se for such winding units do not constitute a part of the subject invention. The details of a suitable mechanical arrangement of the components of said units or heads and the individual electric motor drives therefor may be found in Schippers et al. US. Pat. No. 3,036,784, issued May 29, 1962.

Similarly, the mechanical details per se for the dancer arm units 17 and 18 do not constitute a part of the subject invention. Such dancer arm units are known in the art. As described heretofore, such units constitute rollers or pins on a pivotable dancer arm, which in turn may be either counterbalanced or spring loaded to bias the dancer arm against the tension in the thread loop running thereover. Such dancer arms will pivot under changes in thread tension between the center or home position indicated by numerals 13 and 14 in the drawings and rotatably displaced positions indicated by numerals 13', 13", 14 and 14''.

The positions of the respective dancer arms in turn regulate the speed of the motors in the respective winding units or heads 15 and 16, i.e., slowing down such motors when the dancer arms are displaced downwardly toward the positions 13" and/or 14" and increasing the speed of such motors when the dancer arms are displaced upwardly toward the positions 13' and 14. Any suitable drive motor speed control may be used, e.g., the speed regulating control shown in Lohest et al. US. Pat. No. 3,090,571, issued May 21, 1963, in mechanical or electrical coupling with the respective dancer arm.

It is through that the invention and its numerous attendant advantages will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and it is obvious that numerous changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the several parts without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention, or sacrificing any of its attendant advantages, the forms herein disclosed being preferred embodiments for tl.e purpose of illustrating the invention.

We claim: 1. A device for the winding of threads or filaments with speed-regulated, motor driven winding heads which are arranged in at least two decks, one below the other, and to which the thread feed takes place from above, dancer arms serving as measuring sensors for the speed regulation of the winding motors and being mounted above the winding head decks, the thread or filament path to respective winding heads including a thread loop path over respective dancer arms, and said dancer arms being arranged in pairs one above the other in respective positions whereby the lower dancer arm is situated between the thread or filament path loop across the upper dancer arm.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said dancer arms have pins or rollers over which the respective threads or filaments run, and means pivotally supporting said dancer arms to provide arcuate movement of pins or rollers of said dancer arms in substantially the same plane.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1, and adapted for separate winding of at least two threads or filaments on a common winding member, said device characterized by at least one dancer arm having a plurality of rollers or pins corresponding in number to the number of said separate windings and said rollers or pins being axially aligned.

4. A device as claimed in claim 3 whereby said dancer arm has a plurality of rollers rotatably journaled on a common axle. 

1. A device for the winding of threads or filaments with speedregulated, motor driven winding heads which are arranged in at least two decks, one below the other, and to which the thread feed takes place from above, dancer arms serving as measuring sensors for the speed regulation of the winding motors and being mounted above the winding head decks, the thread or filament path to respective winding heads including a thread loop path over respective dancer arms, and said dancer arms being arranged in pairs one above the other in respective positions whereby the lower dancer arm is situated between the thread or filament path loop across the upper dancer arm.
 2. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said dancer arms have pins or rollers over which the respective threads or filaments run, and means pivotally supporting said dancer arms to provide arcuate movement of pins or rollers of said dancer arms in substantially the same plane.
 3. A device as claimed in claim 1, and adapted for separate winding of at least two threads or filaments on a common winding member, said device characterized by at least one dancer arm having a plurality of rollers or pins corresponding in number to the number of said separate windings and said rollers or pins being axially aligned.
 4. A device as claimed in claim 3 whereby said dancer arm has a plurality of rollers rotatably journaled on a common axle. 